1. Field
The following description relates to a battery management system, and more particularly to a battery management system for predicting life of a reconfigurable battery pack.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a reconfigurable battery pack includes multi-battery modules, bus bars, fuses, and a safety circuitry system, which are combined into one large battery housing. The multi-battery modules are formed by rechargeable battery cells. To increase the power capability, the rechargeable battery cells are selectively connected in series or parallel according to the intended load, and the individual cells may be replaceable thereby forming the reconfigurable battery pack. As used herein, a “reconfigurable battery pack” is defined as a battery pack including a plurality of interconnected battery cells, where at least one of the battery cells is user-replaceable.
Further, the reconfigurable battery pack performance is limited by number of battery modules with the largest degradation, resulting in discarding of the pack. When any one of the batteries degrades, the entire battery pack may be unable to function for its intended purpose. Using a reconfigurable battery pack, one has the option to replace a dead module with a fresh or new module, and extend the life of the reconfigurable battery pack. In such circumstances, it would be beneficial to identify an optimal design criterion that effectively identifies and predicts the life of the reconfigurable battery pack.
Conventional methods and systems have been proposed for predicting life of the reconfigurable battery pack. Although the conventional methods and systems are somewhat effective, to a certain extent, for predicting the life of the reconfigurable battery pack, however such methods and systems include significant disadvantages in terms of hardware components used, controller power draw, manual steps required to be performed, time, cost, complexity, design, number of battery modules/cells involved, machine learning, premature battery cell discarding/waste, and so on.
Thus, it is desired to address the above mentioned disadvantages and/or other shortcomings to provide a useful alternative.